Coronavirus relief bill talks snagged

WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed doubts Wednesday about a COVID-19 aid package becoming law before the Nov. 3 elections.

After a morning phone call with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mnuchin said the myriad disputes over funding and policy questions that have yet to be resolved make an imminent agreement on a long-stalled relief package unlikely.

“I’d say at this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult, just given where we are in the level of details,” Mnuchin said at a Milken Institute conference. “But we are going to try to continue to work through these issues.”

He again stressed the need for liability protection from pandemic-related lawsuits for small businesses and schools that reopen. Democrats have stressed the need to protect workers who risk their health by returning to job sites.

“Having that immunity from prosecution or for taking responsibility, if that’s a deal breaker for them, not having it in there, I think that it should be a deal breaker for us to leave it in there,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-ill., said on a press call Wednesday.

Mnuchin also suggested for the first time that aid to state and local governments – a top priority for Democrats – might need to be accompanied by new financial control boards set up by states to guard against improper spending.

“There may be the need for financial control boards, which would be set by the states,” Mnuchin said. “We want to make sure that the finances are proper and in order, but we also want to make sure that policemen, firemen, first-responders don’t get laid off.”

President Donald Trump echoed that theme at a White House economic forum Wednesday. “I’d like to see the Democrats loosen up a little bit,” he said. “You know, all they want to do is bail out their badly run cities and states.”

Democrats, meanwhile, were pressing for more robust funding and more detailed planning on a COVID-19 testing strategy.

“One major area of disagreement continues to be that the White House lacks an understanding of the need for a national strategic testing plan,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted after the hour-long phone call between the speaker and Mnuchin. He said the two negotiators would speak again on Thursday.